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Kenta Cho talks Blast Works
ABA Games' Kenta Cho, who has nothing to do with Majesco's Blast Works other than originally creating TUMIKI Fighters, is apparently more positive about the whole deal than previous reports made it sound. Speaking with Siliconera's Spencer Yip, he allowed himself to briefly stop being aloof, a little: "I'm glad that I was able to see my game working on the Wii. I hope it would be released also in Japan."He went on to say that he's interested in the new editor features, but worries about ruining the game's simplicity. And, to be clear, Cho is referring here to intuitiveness rather than low difficulty level-- as a shmup fan and creator, we assume he has a lifelong addiction to cripplingly difficult games.
Why not throw a bunch of freeware games in with Blast Works?
That's what Majesco and Budcat thought, anyway. They were already making a game based on a Kenta Cho freeware shooter, with no legal hoops to jump through. There's basically no reason for them not to throw a bunch more Cho games on there! It works out well for them, because it's bonus content, and it works out nicely for us, because we'll be able to play more great abstract shooters on our television, using our Wiimote!Siliconera played Blast Works at E3, and realized very quickly that they were just playing the original TUMIKI Fighters. The Budcat rep explained that it was an early build and that Blast Works would indeed be a new game. He also revealed that not only will TUMIKI Fighters be on the disc in its original form, but rRootage and possibly Gunroar and Torus Trooper will be bonus content as well.This means that you can go preview some Blast Works bonus content right now! It's like being at E3. Just like it. We recommend rRootage especially-- it's a parade of randomly-generated bosses.%Gallery-4821%
Majesco takes advantage of freeware license for Blast Works
How would you respond if you were an amateur game developer and a publisher approached you about remaking one of your freeware games for a home console? If you were ABA Games' Kenta Cho, you'd dismiss the publisher and your own game in a supreme act of powerful nonchalance.When Majesco announced that a version of TUMIKI Fighters was being made for the Wii, we kind of assumed that Kenta Cho himself would be involved in its creation, or, at the very least, at the receiving end of a nice check. Why wouldn't we assume that? But apparently that is not the case.The original game is under a BSD license, which means that anyone can use it, even commercially, as long as they include the proper copyright notice, and they don't use Cho's name to endorse it without permission. And that means that Majesco can just pick up this game and set Budcat Creations to work on a new version. They don't even need permission, because Cho put it (nearly) into the public domain. Before you jump on Majesco for "stealing" free IP, you should know that they did ask Kenta Cho for permission. Cho, being the baddest dude in game design, basically "whatever"-ed them, saying "I'd received an offer of porting TUMIKI Fighters to Wii from Majesco and Budcat and I replied [they could] feel free to use it under the BSD license." Like he didn't even care. Maybe he's just nice and principled: earlier in the same interview, he said "...I want to help many amateur developers to create their own games. I released all my games under the free software license with the source code. I hope the source code helps someone to create a game by referring to or using a part of my code."
Majesco officially announces Tumiki Fighters as Blast Works
We had just about forgotten about the Gamefly-supplied rumor of a Wii port of Tumiki Fighters, and now we have confirmation from Majesco! They'll be releasing an upgraded port of Kenta Cho's freeware shooter, with the new title Blast Works, in the first quarter of next year-- in Europe. No US date has been announced.Not only will the game feature the same awesome mechanic the original had (grabbing parts from exploded enemies to upgrade your ship) but it'll include weapon, propulsion, armor, ship, enemy, and level editors. Grab the freeware version and give it a try, then join us in hoping for a US release-- it beats online petitions, at least.
Wii Are Tumiki Fighters?
A listing for a Majesco-published Wii version of Tumiki Fighters has shown up on Gamefly, and we really, really hope it turns out to be real. Tumiki Fighters is a freeware shmup by Kenta Cho that involves collecting pieces that fall off of destroyed enemy ships to power up your own ship. We like Kenta Cho's games. They're gorgeously presented abstract shooters that either (like Tumiki Fighters) invent new gameplay mechanics or, like rRootage, artfully (and openly) rip off mechanics from other shmups. We aren't sure we'd want to pay full price for them, since they're free right now, but we would consider paying budget price for sufficiently expanded versions.
